Wednesday, July 18, 2012

It was another hot day in Arizona.
The temperature was exceedingly high even for the first day of
June. As I navigated my way home from
work through a morass of overheated vehicles and their similarly afflicted
drivers I happened to notice a billboard displaying the current temperature,
111 degrees Fahrenheit.

An angry Red sun slowly setting in the west, twisted and
distorted by the byproduct of dreary daily commutes both past and present
seemed to punctuate the mood. It seemed as if nature itself was making dour
commentary on our goings on.

Not that this commute was any more eventful than any other,
it wasn't. The usual cast of characters largely
oblivious to the other participants in this risky game were all present. All have a role.

The impatient
jackrabbit convinced that his commuting brethren conspire to impede his
progress at every turn. Darting amongst
the less expedient every gap is an opportunity if you're lucky he may take the
time to signal before traversing 4 lanes of traffic.

The mule, an overloaded landscape truck with its poorly
secured load. Pavement or windshield
which one takes the blow only time can tell.
Only a fool would risk taking a position behind him, many fools do.

The conscientious driver determined to enforce every posted
limit even at their own peril. This is
the sworn enemy of the jackrabbit. The
Tortoise versus the hare or so it seems.
A deadly dance that never questions if but when the race ends in twisted
metal astride a flatbed truck.

The distracted driver more concerned with the status of
their Facebook page than the fiery flare of the brake lights they're rapidly
approaching.

Countless permutations and combinations exist. We've been them all at one point or another
and the memory conjured is never cherished.

It's a basic rule of nature that most unpleasant experiences
are indicators that something's gone awry and needs correction.

A body at rest stays at rest, a body in motion stays in
motion. Daily commutes run afoul of this
basic tenet of science.

Technology is all around us perhaps to our own detriment but
regardless of your opinion it permeates every waking hour.

Why then, with the world at our fingertips do we continue a
ritual firmly embedded in 19th century realities no longer relevant 2 centuries
later.

Perhaps it's a shoehorn mentality. Ill fitting shoes can still be worn if forced
on the wearer. Ignore the pain and the
blood, the shoe is firmly in place and all is as it should be at least
according to convention. The pain must
be endured else the shortcomings of a failing model be revealed.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

It's good to have
heroes. People whom you can look up to
and pattern yourself after as you move through life. It's fairly obvious that Pinal County Sheriff
Paul Babeu has a hero in Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and possibly Rush
Limbaugh.

In the latest episode of "Babeu
on Immigration" we find the Pinal county Sheriff bemoaning what he calls "Roadside
amnesty"

The Pinal County Sheriff
had this to say to local news outlets today.

"Within hours of the
U.S. Supreme Court Justices upholding the main portion of Arizona's SB1070 law, President Obama and
Janet Napolitano, with a wave of their hands, have made what was illegal one
day, legal the next. They can't pass their dream act, so they change
enforcement policies, which undermines the rule of law,"

He goes on to cite an
alleged incident involving a 17 year old stopped for exceeding the speed limit
by 50MPH. Apparently the teen had no
driver's license or other identification because he was an undocumented
immigrant.

The Sheriff contacted U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) but found no interest in the teen
since he had been in the country for most of his life. ICE does not consider this type of
"illegal immigrant" a priority
focusing instead on recent and repeat border crossers, those over 30 years of
age and felony offenders.

Babeu holds President
Obama and DHS Head Napolitano to blame for having to release the young offender
to his mother's custody with a citation instead of turning him over to ICE for
deportation.

Babeu cites the revoking
of the 287G agreements between DHS and local law enforcement as the root
cause.

The 287G
agreements allowed local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration law
and hold offenders in custody. With the
SB1070 supreme court decision, DHS terminated the agreements which in Babeu's
view allows "illegal immigrants" like the aforementioned teen to go
free.

Babeu continues...

"The President fails
to understand the...impact created by his decision to not enforce immigration
laws..........What other laws will the President wave and not enforce?"

Conservative pundits often
cite the reason that Gitmo detainees could not be brought to U.S. soil is because they may gain the same
constitutional protections as U.S.
citizens such as a right to jury trial and counsel. Which begs the question, exactly what laws
isn't Sheriff Babeu able to enforce? The
laws that exist or the laws that he'd like to exist?

The teen in question was
arrested in Sheriff Babeu's county which at last check was well within the
confines of the United States. It's likely that along with the criminal
speeding offense, a laundry list of other charges await the teen unless he
happens to have a parent who belongs to the Mexican consulate. He was arrested while traveling to work so
that's unlikely.

Law enforcement's primary
responsibility is to enforce existing laws, regardless of political bias or
opinion.

While the prospect of
activists judges is frightening, activist law enforcement is even more so. Like Arpaio it appears Babeu has no qualm
with using his position as a political platform. In some cases, tragically as in his recent misinterpretation
of a murder/suicide as a drug cartel assassination.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio of
Maricopa county Arizona has done a stellar job of self promotion for the past 3
decades and it appears Pinal county's Sheriff is looking to get in on the
act. Nothing garners more press
attention than a public persona emphasizing political extremes that border on a
circus sideshow.

It's likely you don't know
the names or political positions of Arizona's
other 13 county sheriffs, perhaps that's the way it should be.

Friday, July 13, 2012

The popular media has found a new scapegoat for our personal failings and of course it has something to do with the Internet.

Depending on whose study you're reading,divorce statistics now show that either1 in 5 or 1 in 3 citethe popular social networking site Facebook as the cause.

How can a website break up a marriage?According to the studies unfaithful spouses often pursue extramarital relationships via Facebook with relative ease and little consequence.Reconnecting with an old flame or just fudging marital status to flirt with other users is as simple as a mouse click.

And why not blame Facebook?If the medium didn't exist none of these failed marriages would have happened, right?Just as it's ridiculous to blame the lamp that you dropped on your foot for your throbbing big toe so it is with blaming Facebook for your divorce.

General statistics still show divorce rates hovering in the 50% range which meansa large group of people made the wrong decision at some point with or without Facebook's help .Blaming the catalyst (aka: Facebook) is nothing less than abdication of personal responsibility.

The media loves headlines like this and buries the details on page 3.After all infidelity is boring but add in the Internet and suddenly it's breaking news.If you're married and pursuing extramarital relationships on Facebook, it's likely you'd be pursuing them without it.

It seems that many enter marriage with little more care than considering the purchase of an automobile.I'll demonstrate with a equivalency comparison...

price = earning potential

styling = looks

performance = use your imagination...

cargo capacity = wants kids

safety = not an axe murderer

resale = alimony

With such a short list it's no surprise so many marriages fail.Is it really such a revelation that an unfaithful spouse is caught flirting on Facebook if your entire relationship is based on such limited information?

Divorce is a very mechanical process; full of formulae, legal claims and plenty ofpersonal liability to go around.Intangibles like communication, shared interests and mutual respect can't be quantified by a cold algorithm.It follows then, that blaming a website for the failure of your relationship exists in the realm of pure fallacy.Facebook is a means not a cause.